Canadian App Turns Homes into Cafes

The Airbnb of coffee and good conversation.

September 12, 2017 — What do you take when you mix Canadian kindness and 21st-century technology? A website and mobile app that helps you invite strangers over for a friendly cup of coffee and some stimulating conversation.

Nok Nok Cafe is an app, much like Airbnb, where users can sign up to host other users. Instead of facilitating room or apartment rentals, however, the app is for facilitating coffee sessions. “Open up to the world, one cup at a time,” their slogan proclaims, allowing “travelers, students, young retirees, self-employed workers [and] professionals” to dream up encounters with friendly locals. Taking some of the romance out of the equation, the app aids hosts in creating a coffee bar in their homes, complete with a drink and beverage menu. Visitors purchase credit and are charged per item through the app. As with any modern service app, users rate each other at the end of the transaction. Despite the slight awkwardness of inviting someone as a guest into your home and then making them pay to drink a cup of coffee and listen to you talk about your porcelain doll collection, the company has had, according to a press release, hundreds of sign-ups.

Currently, the app is available in major cities across Canada. On Tuesday, it was officially launched in Montreal. With plans to go international, will it take over the world? The world is a big, bad place, so we’re not sure. Canada on the other hand? They might just be open enough to give it a go.

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Ethan is the Food News Writer at Genius Kitchen. An expert on the Parisian bistrot, he likes bitters and salted butters, and is no fan of dessert unless it's made with fruit. His hobbies include reading up on the history of borscht and attempting to roll perfect couscous by hand. Twits & Instagram @EthanLJohns